Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship
with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust
he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby’s life and for the emptiness and
moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick reflects
that just as Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and
dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has
disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Gatsby’s power
to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great,”
Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby’s dream and the
American dream—is over.